Final summit-bid was thwarted by fierce winds – reportedly as strong as 150km/hr – at C1, this morning.
The marathon Korean Lhotse South Face expedition 2015 ends without success. Final summit-bid was thwarted by fierce winds – reportedly as strong as 150km/hr – at C1, this morning. The wind has damaged the tents and flew away necessary gear. Sung Taek Hong and the team of Sherpa have returned to Base Camp. One member of Sherpa team has been injured by falling rocks and is rescued to hospital. The team will start the return journey, soon.
Having reached BC at the start of October, the team established three camps C1, C2 and C3 (7700m) during first month. Their plan was to set up another camp C4 at 8100m and reach the summit by Nov 12th.
First summit push was halted at 7850m by a strong blizzard. During next attempt, they were successful in setting up C4 at 8000m but couldn’t proceed further due to bad conditions. In third summit-bid, they reached 8200m.
In fourth and final summit push, Korean team was hoping to reach the summit by December 3rd. However, it ended only at C1. “I gave Lhotse all she could have asked of me to reach this point,” Sung Taek Hong wrote in his expedition diary. It was his third (consecutive) attempt on South Face of Lhotse.
